Re: Sheesh

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 9:46 PM

> Still, I agree with the semantic aspect of your grievance.  In retrospect,
> it might have been better if the term 'dinosaur' was limited to non-avian
> dinosaurs for vernacular usage, and a new term was erected for
> dinosaurs-including-birds (like Avedinosauria or something, analogous to
> Cetartiodactyla).

I agree.

> Even better, the word 'dinosaur' could be used in the
> vernacular sense, and 'dinosaurian' (noun) used in the scientific sense
> (i.e., including birds).

Apart from the obvious danger of confusion, this gets very funny once you 
leave the English (or French, or probably Spanish) language. For example, 
you can do this trick with "crocodile" in German*, but not with "dinosaur". 
In Russian I think it doesn't work at all...

* It sounds rather silly when you do -- but it's nonetheless frequently done 
in the literature.